A Golden Age arcade game from the Modern Era!
Donut Dodo is a Retraux arcade style game developed and published by pixel. Games and released on June 3, 2022 on Steam with a Nintendo Switch release following on December 1, 2022.The player takes the role of Baker Billy Burns who must outwit Donut Dodo and his minions by stealing back all of the donuts he has taken from their factory. The retro-style arcade game has only five single-screen levels with 80's style game mechanics, music, and difficulty.
The game features the following tropes:
- Amusement Park: Stage 3: Ferris Wheel Frenzy. A large Ferris wheel with four gondola platforms in the center of the stage is the focus of the stage.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Living toilets are after Baker Billy as well.
- A Winner Is You: Parodied. After the player finishes a number of loops that varies based on the difficulty setting, they see an ending screen that says "Congraturation! This story is happy end."
- Bedsheet Ghost: One of the enemies in later stages is a yellow ghost that resembles a bedsheet costume.
- Big Bad: The titular big bad, Donut Dodo.
- Bonus Level: After finishing the fourth level, the player gets to play a Bonus Stage where Billy Burns bounces on a pumpkin to collect donuts in a direct reference to Breakout
- Breath Weapon: Donut Dodo coughs up Fireballs to try and burn Billy. If Donut Dodo starts flashing red and green, he's about to spit one out.
- Circling Birdies: At the end of the game, Dodo gives up and has stars circling above his head.
- Collision Damage: Colliding with enemies costs a life.
- Every 10,000 Points: Collecting a set amount of points grants Billy an extra heart.
- Fireballs: Donut Dodo shoots fireballs. Oil drums occasionally spit out animated balls of fire.
- Hearts Are Health: Number of tries is represented by the amount of hearts.
- Level Ate: Level 4: Candy Store Crush takes place in a candy shop.
- No OSHA Compliance: Stage 2: Construction Site Chaos. Exposed and burning oil barrels, a spiked pit at the bottom center of the screen, and not to mention a giant dodo bird riding on the large crane.
- Retraux: The game was developed in 2022 but has the exact style as an arcade game from The Golden Age of Video Games.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Rats are at half of the size of Billy Baker.
- Shout-Out:
- The enemies are named Sniffy, Stinky, and Winky
- When you first start the game and haven't earned a high score, the three-letter scorers are named "PAC", "MAN", "DIG", "DUG", "POP", "EYE", "DON", "KEY", and "KON".
- The name of the level "Candy Store Crush" is a reference to Candy Crush Saga.
- In a reference to Ghostbusters (1984) the ending screen says "Congraturation!" and in a reference to Ghosts 'n Goblins it includes "This story is happy end."
- The Bouns Stage has Billy jumping from a pumpkin to collect donuts in a fashion just like Breakout.
- Spikes of Doom: Damaging spikes are usually located at the bottom of the stage.
- Wrap Around: The screen on all four of the standard stages is wrapped on both sides.
